Kingston council leaders, in speeches, focus on rail, trail, infrastructure

KINGSTON >> The Common Council’s majority and minority leaders say court battles should be stopped and a compromise reached on efforts surrounding the expansion of a tourist rail line and recreational trails in the area.

Majority Leader Matthew Dunn, D-Ward 1, and Minority Leader Deborah Brown, R-Ward 9, presented their “State of the City” addresses Tuesday evening at City Hall. While each spoke on a variety of topics, they both addressed the ongoing rail-vs.-trail battle and touched on the city’s infrastructure, Board of Water Commissioners and the creation of an updated municipal Comprehensive Plan.

“We need the tourist trains to grow our local economy,” Dunn said in his address. “Over the past year, the rail [Catskill Mountain Railroad] attracted over 40,000 riders, and 30,000 were from out of the county.”

Dunn also said many local businesses provided services to users of the rail line, which benefited the economy. He said Democratic members of the council would support efforts to develop a “win-win situation” between the proponents of the railroad and a recreational trail.

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Dunn said there are challenges to be addressed in doing so, including determining how to access the rails to swap out equipment, how to make a path from the Kingston Plaza to the Glenford Dike wide enough for both the rail and trail and how to get approval from the New York City Department of Environmental Protection for the two to coexist.

The Catskill Mountain Railroad operates a tourist train on the former Ulster & Delaware tracks, which are owned by the county, but does so under a lease that expires in May 2016. The railroad wants to extend its Kingston-Ulster operation to the Ashokan Reservoir’s Glenford Dike, which is about a mile west of the Woodstock Dike.

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection, which operates the reservoir, has said it will not allow trains to run along the northern edge of the reservoir, which would be necessary to reach the Glenford Dike,

Ulster County Executive Michael Hein wants the county Legislature to adopt what he said is his “compromise plan” to allow a tourist train to continue operating between Kingston Plaza and just below the Kenco store on state Route 28 in the town of Ulster. The compromise reverses Hein’s initial plans for the trail that rejected any notion of a continued train operation on the Kingston-Ulster side of the reservoir.

“Let’s move from fighting each other and wasting money in the courts to proactively developing solutions,” Dunn said.

Brown also mentioned the controversial nature of the projects but said she was excited and encouraged by the trail initiative moving forward “as it plays into the city of Kingston’s programs to live and maintain a healthy lifestyle.”

Brown, though, said there is a place for trains like those run by the Catskill Mountain Railroad, which has proved it can be a money-making entity.

“Some concessions need to be made,” Brown said. “Stop spending taxpayers’ dollars on the lawsuit [between the county and railroad], which has been a considerable amount. Even the Ulster County Legislature has been grappling with this agenda. We need to have all entities involved, including the county, to agree to an in-depth, unbiased and impartial study on the feasibility of having trail and rail abiding side by side whenever possible on the land masses involved.”

The county and railroad have been in a legal battle over whether the railroad is complying with the terms of its lease to use the tracks.

Brown also said she would like to see certified plans and diagrams publicized.

Regarding infrastructure, both Dunn and Brown mentioned the need to complete repairs of the city’s Washington Avenue sinkhole.

Brown said Kingston is “an old city with old infrastructure, and the time for putting Band-Aids on the problem is long gone,” while Dunn said a plan should be created to fix and maintain the infrastructure to better serve the community at less cost to taxpayers.

Dunn noted the sinkhole is costing nearly $8 million to repair, the city Water Department has identified $18 million in needed infrastructure repairs, and the rest of the city’s infrastructure needs another $13 million worth of work.

As for the city Board of Water Commissioners, both Dunn and Brown noted the now-withdrawn proposal by Niagara Bottling to bottle water drawn from the city’s reservoir raised awareness that the board was not answerable to the Common Council.

Dunn said there are discussions about changing the law to enable the council to “intercede if there is reason to believe that public safety, health or well-being is in jeopardy based on a decision by the Water Department and the water board.”